


Pop Tate, Working-Class Hero: The Untold Story of How Pop’s Chock'lit Shoppe Became a Worker Cooperative

by stonerbughead



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M, I mean you saw those molotov cocktails he had on hand in s2 right?, Pop Tate is a Black Panther, takes place in a slightly AU version of canon Riverdale, tw: food insecurity, tw: poverty, tw: systemic racism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 06:35:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27549964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonerbughead/pseuds/stonerbughead
Summary: Rumors that the Lodge family wants to purchase Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe by any means necessary motivate Betty and Jughead to interview Pop Tate on a rainy Sunday morning.One of my submissions to the Riverdale Pride & Joy Zine, posted now on AO3 in the name of better representation for our beloved underrepresented characters on the show and in fandom. A huge thanks to everyone who bought or sponsored or even just uplifted the zine; thanks to you we raised $$$ for the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network!
Relationships: Betty Cooper/Jughead Jones
Comments: 20
Kudos: 24





	Pop Tate, Working-Class Hero: The Untold Story of How Pop’s Chock'lit Shoppe Became a Worker Cooperative

**Author's Note:**

> As y’all can tell, both my role as resident union maid/leftist of the Bughead fandom and the momentum of the summer’s protests against policing hugely influenced both the stories I chose to write for the Pride and Joy Zine. Keep staying plugged in to the Movement for Black Lives as we continue the fight to defund and eventually abolish the police!
> 
> This particular fic centers my favorite unsung character of Riverdale, Pop Tate, who i've longed referred to as the Working Class Hero of Riverdale on my podcast, Bodysuits For Bughead, hence the title. it expands on a headcanon/wish I’ve had for a long time that Pop Tate was a Black Panther in his youth. i also have an ongoing joke/dream on B4B that we should #NationalizePops to feed all the hungry kids of Riverdale. ENJOY.
> 
> Also, a huge shout out to all my fellow creators who collabed on the zine from across the fandom, and to our fearless leaders, Sara and Tory!!!

Pop Tate’s favorite time in the Chock’lit Shoppe has to be 10 AM on a Sunday morning. It’s peaceful and quiet, a proverbial calm before the storm: late enough that the working-class stiffs have already downed their coffees and gone, but early enough that the inevitable tables and tables of churchgoing families are still sitting in their church pews.

It’s rainy today, and Pop takes a moment while wiping down the front counter to stare out the window, mesmerized as always by the simple beauty of rainwater dyed pink and purple and red by the diner’s dull neon lights.

He chuckles when he hears the distinctive roar of a particular motorcycle. Sure enough, the foggy outline of two matching helmets swims into view, a blonde ponytail hanging from the back as the bike stops and the engine cuts. A smirk still on his face, Pop continues wiping as he waits.

The truth is, Pop Tate has been expecting Betty Cooper and Jughead Jones for a couple days now.

Pop overhears far more than anyone in Riverdale ever thinks he does, a fact that has kept him afloat in this mysterious town for many decades. The weekend before, Pop listened as the _Blue and Gold_ staff conspired about “a new Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe angle,” apparently spurned by recent rumors that the infamous Lodge family would be returning to town looking to buy up property. 

He doesn’t mind; he likes Betty and Jughead. Two years earlier, when the Blossom twins disappeared in early July, Betty and Jughead were the only ones able to track them down. Pop watched as the pair of childhood friends slowly but surely fell in love before his eyes, pressed close in his booths night after night, drinking coffee and poring over clues.

It was only a matter of time before the investigative duo discovered his story, too.

After all, Pop’s story has always been there—it’s just that for a long time, no one’s asked him to tell it. It’s sad to say, but he trusts Betty and Jughead with it more than he can Betty’s mother over at the _Riverdale Register_.

The bell on the front door rings, opening with an audible whoosh. Pop lifts his eyes to see Betty and Jughead trudging in, shaking off umbrellas and wiping sneakers on the mat. Jughead hangs up both of their leather motorcycle jackets near the door, Betty offering him an appreciative smile as she wrings out her wet hair. Pop tries not to laugh out loud as he muses internally that these two seventeen-year-olds act more like a married couple than most of the _actual_ spouses in Riverdale do.

Pop watches the pair exchange one of their patented, silent looks of understanding before forgoing their usual booth to approach him at the diner counter.

“Hey, Pop,” Betty starts, swinging her legs over one of the stools. “How’s your morning going?”

“You’ve found me in high spirits.” Pop grins, gesturing toward the window. “I have a certain soft spot for a rainy Sunday.”

Jughead shoots Betty an “I told you so” look before going in for the closer: “Seeing as it’s pretty slow, would this be a good time to talk? Betty and I were wondering if you’d be willing to sit down for an interview for the _Blue and Gold_.”

Pop tries to feign surprise. “Possibly. In regards to what story?”

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of these rumors about what the Lodge family is trying to do in Riverdale,” Betty explains. 

“Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe keeps coming up again and again from our sources,” Jughead adds.

“Oh, yeah?” Pop says, tilting his head curiously to the side. “And what are they saying?”

Betty shrugs, sounding unconvinced as she says, “They’ve variously described it as ‘vulnerable,’ ‘a property of interest,’ and ‘coveted.’ One person even went as far to say they thought Hiram Lodge would take it by force if he had to.”

Jughead adds, “Apparently there’s some townwide rumor that _no one_ owns Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. That’s the other word they kept using: ‘ownerless.’”

Pop shakes his head, scoffing. “Good ol’ fashioned Riverdale rumor mill.”

“We thought it was ridiculous too,” Betty says resolutely. “So, we thought we’d come to you first.”

Pop chuckles loudly. “Go on over to your booth,” he says, nodding in the direction of the same booth where he’d seen Jughead kiss Betty’s hands late one night two years earlier—before he looked away, realizing the teenagers were clearly sharing a very intimate moment. “We’ll need milkshakes if I’m gonna tell the whole story.”

Pop walks into the back, motioning to the two workers on shift with him this morning—Bernice and Nancy. “Can one of you cover the front? I have some nosy teenagers to attend to.”

“No problem, Pop,” says Nancy, sliding past him as Pop begins preparing three milkshakes: chocolate for Jughead, strawberry for Betty, and cookies ‘n cream for himself. 

Bernice sounds surprised from her usual spot flipping hamburgers. “Are you gonna tell those two teen detectives everything?” 

Pop nods, smiling at his oldest friend brightly. “It was never a secret, Bernie.” He adopts a teasing tone as he tops each shake with whipped cream, “No one in Riverdale has ever cared about the stories of us _lowly_ restaurant workers.” 

Pop begins arranging the milkshakes on a tray and Bernice laughs heartily as she replies, “ _Riverdale_? Try the United States as a whole!”

Pop chuckles again, headed back out. “Just give me an hour with the kids.”

By the time Pop sets the three milkshakes down, Betty and Jughead are settled side by side in their usual booth, pens at the ready. An antiquated tape recorder sits in the center of the table, adorned with a faded “property of Riverdale High” label. Pop pulls his apron and hat off before settling in the booth across from them, taking a satisfying first sip of his shake.

“Do you mind if we record this?” Jughead asks.

“Of course not!” he says. “Now, ask away; you only have until church lets out, after all.”

Betty presses a button on the recorder and nods to Jughead, who says, “I guess we should start with the simple question: who owns Pop’s?”

Pop laughs, leaning back in his seat. “Oh, Jug,” he says. “If only it had a simple answer.”

Betty grins, excitement dancing in her eyes as she grips her pen tighter. “We’re listening.”

“Did I ever tell you kids about my parents?”

They both shake their heads.

“My parents bought this diner a long time ago, using money my grandma left them. They worked here together for a decade. But then, sadly, my mama died of lung cancer when I was real young, only seven years old.”

“Oh, Pop,” Betty says sympathetically.

“My dad still had the diner, thankfully, and he raised me with the help of the community—you know, like anyone on the Southside does.” He nods toward Jughead, who offers a curt nod back. “But sadly, he died too, when I was only 24; a heart attack. He worked until the day he died.” 

Jughead frowns, making a small note in his notebook. 

“Now, imagine being 24 years old, suddenly orphaned, and before you know it, a fancy lawyer is telling you that you own a diner. And not just a diner, but a diner on the precipice of going under.”

Betty and Jughead both look horrified.

“Now, mind you, this was the 60s. My friends and I were deep into the revolution. We fancied ourselves radical organizers, and after growing up on the Southside, it wasn’t too hard to convince us that the advancement of the working class was the only way forward for Black liberation,” Pop explains, and Betty and Jughead are mesmerized now, writing notes as fast as they can.

“My best friend Bernie’s mom was real into that stuff, and she made us read a lot. I felt guilty that I didn’t know the restaurant was doing so horribly. At the time my dad passed, I was busy with my friends, starting a small chapter of the Black Panther Party on the Southside. We had a whole mutual aid effort going, local businesses and families donating to help us provide breakfast for the hungry Black and Brown kids living in the poorer, overpoliced parts of town.”

Jughead frowns. “I feel like you could be talking about Riverdale today.”

Pop sighs. “I wish I could say you were wrong, Jug,” he says sadly. “Anyway, all of this to say: when I found out that I, Terry ‘Pop’ Tate, _owned_ a piece of property, I found that entirely too ‘bourgeois.’”

Betty and Jughead both laugh. 

Pop shrugs, a smile on his face too. “So I got together with my best friends, the ones I was doing mutual aid with everyday—Bernice, Samm, and Frankie—and we tried to decide what to do. I didn’t feel even a little bit equipped to run a restaurant on my own. But we thought… wait, we have a chance here to create a space where families can come and get affordable food. We did want to feed Riverdale, didn't we?”

“Wow,” Betty says. “So...is that the mission of Pop’s, then?”

Pop nods. “Oh, yes. I don’t let any kid go unfed in Pop’s.”

“I thought…” Jughead says, a faraway look in his eye. Betty rests a reassuring hand on his shoulder, watching him with concerned eyes. Jughead stares back up at Pop. “So, that’s why you never made me pay when I came in here to escape my dad?”

Betty’s eyes widen, looking between them.

He nods. “No family goes hungry in Riverdale,” Pop says, a phrase he’s repeated a million times before.

Jughead blinks back tears. “But...then...that still leaves the question: _who_ owns it? Someone must, right?”

Pop shrugs, taking a dramatic sip of his milkshake. “The workers do.”

Betty and Jughead look incredulous. “What do you mean?” Betty says.

“Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe has been a worker-owned cooperative since about six months after my dad left it to me,” Pop explains. “After a couple chaotic months of my friends and I just trying to keep the place running, Samm’s girlfriend at the time—a real badass anarchist—suggested we look into worker co-ops.”

“So, all four of you own it?” Jughead clarifies.

“At the beginning, it was just the four of us, yes,” Pop says. “But since that day, Pop’s has been equally owned and democratically governed by all the workers you see working here.”

Betty asks, “And how do you uphold the mission of...feeding all of Riverdale?”

“Part of the deal is that we dedicate a portion of the profits to subsidizing meals for the impoverished in Riverdale. So we functionally never have to turn anyone away.”

“That’s...amazing,” Betty says. “So, do you all still work here now? I think...I recognize Bernice. She’s the head cook, right?”

Pop nods, smiling. “Good eye as always, Betty. Yes. Bernice is still here working in the kitchen, and Samm has been relegated to just the back office for a while, doing all the ordering and inventory. Frankie fully retired about a decade ago, and who can blame him?” He chuckles, thinking of Frankie living the good life in Florida.

“What about Nancy...and Raj? Anita, Dexter?” Jughead asks, rattling off the rest of the servers and line cooks off the top of his head.

“Is that everyone?” Betty asks, thinking.

“Currently,” Pop says. “And yes, they all have partial ownership of this place at the moment, along with Bernie, Samm, and I.”

“But the name, Pop’s?” Betty says with her usual curiosity. “It’s always implied a level of ownership. I mean, when this all started, I dismissed the idea that Pop’s could be ‘owner-less.’ I just always assumed _you_ owned this place.” She looks around her with a wistful grin on her face, and Pop smiles.

“I think it’s better off I don’t own it alone,” he says gently. “All together, we each get to exercise our strengths and make decisions democratically. I’m proud of what we’ve done. All we’ve ever wanted is to create a place where everyone in town—families and friends and couples of all colors and creeds—can afford to eat here together.”

Pop looks back at Betty and Jughead and finds them smiling at each other, a blush covering Jughead’s face before he seems to remember they’re on newspaper business. He counts it as a win that so many kids in this town leave with countless happy memories in their restaurant, that they come back on college breaks to catch up over milkshakes.

“So, why is it named Pop’s?” Jughead asks, rephrasing Betty’s earlier question. “If the place isn’t owned by just you alone anymore?”

Pop shrugs. “The name already existed and it felt like good branding. No one else was as comfortable with the attention that comes with being the face of this place. Like I said, we all played to our strengths.”

Betty looks up from her furious-notetaking. “But so...bringing this back to Hiram Lodge. If he and his family somehow _are_ interested in acquiring Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe, what would you say to that?”

Pop doesn’t even hesitate. “Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe belongs to the people of Riverdale. We pledged decades ago that we would never let anyone in this town go hungry. Hiram Lodge will have this place over our dead bodies.” Pop’s voice shakes a little. “And you can quote me on that.”

Betty and Jughead look impressed, both hastily scribbling down notes. Betty is the first to stop, scanning her notebook and turning to Jughead. “I think I have everything I need, Jug. You?”

He stops writing a minute later, seemingly considering before locking eyes with Betty and agreeing, “Same.” 

The couple turns to Pop with large smiles on their faces. “Thank you _so_ much for your time, Pop,” Betty says.

Pop stands up, busing the three empty milkshake glasses as he replies, “No problem, Betty. I’m happy to tell my story, and there’s no one I’d trust it with more than you two.” 

“Thanks, Pop,” Betty says with a proud little smile, moving to get up herself, but Jughead fixes her with a pleading look.

“We only had milkshakes, Betts,” he says. “Can we _please_ stay for breakfast?”

Betty laughs, sitting back down immediately.

“I’ll grab your usuals, kids,” Pop says with a laugh. As he’s walking away to grab them, he can’t help but grin at the excitement in Betty’s voice as she stage-whispers to Jughead: “Can you _believe_ the scoop we just got?!”

“I know, I know!” Jughead says, just as excited, and Pops hears the unmistakable sound of a soft kiss. 

The diner steadily fills with more and more families, and soon Betty and Jughead are at the register paying their bill. 

“It stopped raining,” Pop says as he hands Betty her receipt, a wistful smile on his face. He already misses it.

As they’re putting their jackets back on, Betty says, “Toni Topaz takes all our photos. Is it okay if she comes by one day this week to get some shots of you and the other workers?”

“I’ll talk to the others,” Pop agrees. “Have Toni come by whenever. I’ll try to find some photos of the original four from the old days too.”

As the door closes behind Betty and Jughead, Pop pictures the photo he’s thinking of: Pop, Samm, Bernice, and Frankie, all posing in front of the counter with fists raised in the air, on the first day they opened their doors officially worker-owned. Pop can still hear what they said when the camera flashed, like it was yesterday, their voices young and full of hope: “No family goes hungry in Riverdale.”

Pop carries that hope with him every day. At least, he tries to.

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a very real reminder of the way systemic racism and food insecurity are impacting the most vulnerable and marginalized among us during this pandemic. Donate to your local food bank or mutual aid fund, folks! Take care of each other!
> 
> and thanks to Sara (satelliteinasupernova) for the beta help on this one!
> 
> love, Maria


End file.
